Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Corinthians 1:10

"who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;" — 2 Corinthians 1:10 (ASV)

Who delivered us from so great a death. From a death so terrible, and from a prospect so alarming. It is suggested here by the word Paul uses that the death he feared was one of a particularly terrifying character—probably death by wild beasts (See Barnes on 2 Corinthians 1:8).

He was near death; he had no hope of rescue; and the manner of the threatened death was particularly frightful. Paul regarded rescue from such a death as a kind of resurrection and felt that he owed his life to God as if God had raised him from the dead. All deliverance from imminent peril and from dangerous sickness, whether of ourselves or our friends, should be regarded as a kind of resurrection from the dead. God could have taken away our breath with infinite ease, and it is only by His merciful intervention that we live.

And doth deliver. He still continues to deliver us—or preserve us. This perhaps suggests that danger had continued to follow Paul after the notable deliverance to which he particularly refers, and that he had continued to be in similar peril of his life. Paul was daily exposed to danger and was constantly preserved by the good providence of God. He has nowhere indicated in what manner he was rescued from the peril to which he was exposed. It is implied, however, that it was by a remarkable divine intervention; but whether by miracle or by the ordinary course of Providence, he nowhere states. Whatever the method, however, Paul regarded God as the source of the deliverance and felt that his obligations were due to Him as his kind Preserver.

In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. This means that He will continue to preserve us. We hope; we are accustomed to cherish the expectation that He will continue to defend us in the perils we will yet encounter. Paul felt that he was still exposed to danger. Everywhere he was liable to be persecuted (See Barnes on Acts 20:23), and everywhere he felt that his life was in peril. Yet he had been preserved until then in a most remarkable manner. He felt assured that God would continue to intervene on his behalf until His great purpose for him should be fully accomplished. Thus, at the close of life, Paul could look to God as his Deliverer and feel that all along his perilous journey, God had been his great Protector.